Carabiners are ring-like devices that have a gate that can be opened and closed to allow, for example, a bight of rope to be passed through the gate such that the rope extends through the carabiner without having to thread an end of the rope through the carabiner. Carabiners are used in various applications. Carabiners are often used in outdoor recreational activities such as rock climbing, mountaineering, and sailing. Carabiners are also employed, however, in non-recreational applications such as, for example, rescue operations and military applications.
Generally, a carabiner has a C-shaped ring body having a first end and a second end with an opening therebetween. A gate is pivotally attached to one end of the ring body and extends across the opening in the ring body to the other end of the ring body, such that the gate may be selectively opened to allow articles to pass through the opening between the ends of the ring body, or closed to prevent articles from passing through the opening between the ends of the ring body. The gate may be biased to the closed position using, for example, a spring positioned and configured to urge the gate to the closed position.
To avoid inadvertent opening of the gate of a carabiner, it is known in the art to provide a locking sleeve on the gate. The locking sleeve may be movable between a locked position and an unlocked position. In the locked position, the locking sleeve prevents the gate from moving from the closed position to the open position, but allows the gate to move from the closed position to the open position when the locking sleeve is in the unlocked position. In some carabiners, the locking sleeve is threaded onto the gate, such that the locking sleeve is rotated in a first direction about the gate by a user to move the locking sleeve into the locked position, and rotated in an opposite, second direction about the gate by the user to move the locking sleeve into the unlocked position. In other carabiners, the locking sleeve is configured to slide in a longitudinal direction relative to the gate between the locked and unlocked positions. In such embodiments, the locking sleeve may be biased to the locked position using, for example, a spring positioned and configured to urge the locking sleeve to the locked position.
Examples of carabiners that include locking sleeves are disclosed in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/291,493, filed Dec. 1, 2005 (published Jun. 29, 2006 as United States Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2006/0137151 A1); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/827,380, filed Jul. 10, 2007 (published Jan. 31, 2008 as United States Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2008/0022497 A1); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,076 to Choate, which issued Jul. 8, 2003.